Epilogue to Prelude to a Bedtime Story
by evil-jeannie75
Summary: Jeannie and Rodney have a talk as her stay on Atlantis comes to an end. Rodney gets a present and embarrasses his teammates at the same time. Spoilers up to and including McKay and Mrs. Miller.


Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate Atlantis or any of the characters or actors...sniff...I'm really quite sad about that.

Note: This is the epilogue to Prelude to a Bedtime Story. I begins write after Rodney and Jeannie hug in McKay and Mrs. Miller, so spoilers up to there. Happy reading and please review:D

* * *

After their talk, Rodney was about to leave to let Jeannie get some rest. They had made peace, he had promise to come for Christmas, it was all good, except that one nagging little teeny tiny thing that was bugging him. Again, he had no idea where the urge came from but he turned to his sister and said, "Give Madison a kiss for me." Jeannie nodded her head and smiled and he continued on his way.

"Wait!" Jeannie called to Rodney. "I have something for you." She opened her bag and took out a manila envelope and handed it to her brother. "Madison asked me to give this to you."

"What is it?" Rodney asked curiously.

"I don't know. She made me promise not to look."

"She make you pinky-swear?" Rodney asked remembering his niece's pinky-swear promise to not tell her mother about all the bad words he taught her. 'Hmm…I wonder if she kept it?' Rodney thought.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Well?? Are you going to open it or what?" Jeannie asked impatiently.

"I'll open it later."

"Mer-e-dith!" Jeannie stomped her foot. "Open it now!"

"God, you are so annoying!"

"I know," Jeannie said grinning. "Well, are you going to open it or what?"

"And you're bossy. Madison is just like you."

"No, she's just like you," she corrected. "Now, will you please open it so I know what my daughter is sent you? Please?" She gave him the same puppy dog look that his niece had given him not too long ago.

Rodney rolled his eyes. "You know, it only works when you're four."

"What?"

"The whole puppy dog thing."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know…the look." Rodney demonstrated the puppy dog look for her.

"Whatever! Open the damn envelope, Rodney! I'm dying of curiosity."

"Rodney? You've never called me that before."

"Well, is it going to get you to open that envelope?"

"Stop being your daughter!"

"Then, open it!'

"Fine!" Rodney growled. He opened the envelope and took out two sheets of paper. Looking at them, he could tell that they were some of the drawings that Madison had promised she would make him.

The first picture was of a little girl and a man. The girl had blond pigtails and blue eyes. She was wearing a pink tutu and carrying what looked like a bunny. She was holding hands with a dark-haired man with blue eyes. The man was wearing something very similar to what he wore the night that he went to visit Jeannie. On top of the picture were the words "Me and Uncle Rodney." Rodney smiled.

He handed the first picture to Jeannie so she wouldn't drop dead on him and took a good look at the second picture. There were many more people in this picture. At the forefront, was a who looked just like the man from the first picture, a woman with orange hair, and a little blonde girl with wings. On the right of the man, was another man. He had a red shirt with a letter "K" on it and crazy brown hair. On his right, was a man with dark hair and blue eyes wearing a green shirt and a lab coat. On the woman's left, there was another woman with a brown dress and what looked like a caveman. Each person had their names written over their picture in little four year old writing: The Scientist, The Princess, The Knight, The Witchdoctor, The Warrior-lady, The Caveman, and The Faerie. Rodney laughed, it was a drawing of the story he told her, "The Princess and the Scientist." She got most of the names right too. Although, one thing puzzled him. His story didn't have a faerie.

"Who's this?" Rodney asked his sister.

"I don't know. She said to tell you that your story needed a faerie."

Rodney started to laugh. It looks like his niece wanted to be part of his story. He was going to have to come up with a way to put her in.

"What's so funny?"

"I told Madison a bedtime story called 'The Princess and The Scientist' and it looks like she wants me to put her in the story."

"Well, are you going to?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Mer-e-dith!" Jeannie said hitting him.

"Must you hit me?"

"My daughter made you these drawings and asked you to put her in your story and you're not going to…"

"Wait!" Rodney put his hand up effectively cutting her off. "Of course I'm going to put her in the story. I just have to think of a way to do that. It's a good thing I have until Christmas to do it."

"So you're really coming for Christmas?"

"If you want me to come."

"Of course we want you to come, Meredith. You're my brother and Madison's uncle. Although, I'm warning you…a knick-knack you swiped from your boss's desk is not quite gonna cut it as a Christmas present, so get back early and do some actual shopping. Especially considering you have oh I don't know four years to make up for."

"I'll keep that in mind," Rodney said smiling. "Well, I'm gonna go…I have some scientist stuff to do."

"Will I see you in the morning?" Jeannie asked hopefully.

"Breakfast?"

"Breakfast is sounds good. Although, do you think they have anything vegetarian? Caleb is going to kill me for all of the meat that I've eaten on this trip."

"Then, don't tell him or better yet, tell him that you've been eating roasted Athosian cow brains and Wraith liver."

"Do you want him to throw up?"

"Oh, and add Satedan muskrat to the list. That'll surely send him over the edge," Rodney said with a grin.

"Mer-e-dith! Why must you insist on torturing my husband?"

"Because it's fun. Because I'm your big brother and that's my job and because there's so much to make fun of."

Jeannie glared at him.

"Okay, fine. Tell Calvin I said hi."

"Caleb," Jeannie reminded him.

"Caleb, right…I'm going to have to remember that. Well, goodnight."

"What? I don't get a story?"

"You're too old for a story."

"You told Madison one."

"She's four and a lot cuter than you. Plus, she does that whole puppy-dog thing really well. Then, she pretends to cry. It's all quite disturbing."

"Come on, Mer. Please? One story. I'll cry."

"You are such a brat!"

"I know," she grinned. "Okay, instead of a story, I'll settle for gossip."

"Gossip I can do," Rodney said excitedly, sitting on the edge of her bed. "Did you know that Carson has a shrine dedicated to his mother in his quarters?"

"No? Get out!"

"Really. It's kind of creepy. I think he talks to it and brings it food," Rodney shuddered. "Did you know that Sheppard is the Captain Kirk of the Pegasus Galaxy?"

Jeannie giggled as she listened to her brother tell her stories about his Atlantean family. It was good to know that he wasn't the only one capable of completely embarrassing himself.

* * *

After Jeanne left, Rodney found himself sitting in his lab staring at the pictures that his niece drew for him. He and Jeannie had a wonderful time talking the night before and he was thrilled that he had gotten the chance to thoroughly embarrass his teammates. Payback's a bitch, right?

Afterwards, Rodney had gone to the mess for something to eat and once again saw his team huddled around a table without him. He wondered if they had been doing this deliberately, when they confided to him that they weren't all to keen on Rod. More importantly though, they liked him better.. His inner child grinned. Then, he sat down with his team and they had a long talk…well, mostly they teased Teyla about having the hots for a marine, but it was still fun. Rodney was almost starting to feel bad about telling all of those embarrassing stories to Jeannie…well, almost.

Their breakfast was also pleasant. It has started out being just the two of them and the Colonel, but Ronon, Teyla, Zelenka, and Carson ended up joining them. Jeannie almost choked on her breakfast when Carson mentioned his mother. Sheppard looked at him curiously and Rodney gave him an 'I'll tell you later' look and Sheppard left it alone. All too soon, though, the Daedulus was ready to leave and they all said their goodbyes. Rodney had promised to come for Christmas and bring them nice presents. Honestly, Jeannie was just like her daughter!

Rodney stayed in the control room until the Daedulus had left and the retreated to his lab which was where Colonel Sheppard found him hours later.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" John asked breaking Rodney out of his revelry.

"Something my niece drew me," Rodney said.

"Well, can I see them?" John asked.

"Must you be so nosy?"

John thought about it for a moment before decided. "Yes. Now hand 'em over!"

"Fine!" Rodney grumbled. "Just don't rip them or tear them. This is all I've got."

"Well, whose fault is that?"

"Yes, I know I'm a horrible brother, but I'm working on it."

John looked at the pictures. "These are good," John said.

"Yes, they are," Rodney said proudly.

"One thing though, who are all these people?" John asked of the picture of "The Princess and the Scientist."

"That's a long story."

"Well, I've got time," John said. "Although, you really should tell me why I nearly had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on your sister at breakfast first….just so you don't forget."

Rodney told John the story he had told his sister about Carson and his mother. John laughed. "Man, Carson is going to kill you if he ever finds out."

"After all of the things he told Jeannie, he deserves it. I didn't, however, tell her about the time he fainted when that pretty waitress gave him her number."

"Wait! Wait! What? How did I not know this? Start from the beginning."

"Okay, there was this diner that we would always go to for lunch and there was this waitress that he was totally smitten with. Quite pathetic, actually." John looked at him funny.

"What? Anyway, we would always make sure to sit in her section that way she was the one who took our order and every time he went order something, he would turn into a babbling fool…"

"Are you sure this is not a story about you?" Sheppard teased.

"HaHa! Very funny. Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?"

"Go ahead, oh masterful narrator…One thing though, you didn't tell any embarrassing stories about me did you?"

"What do you think?" Rodney grinned.

"Rod-ney," John said slapping him in the arm. "Embarrassing me in front of your sister is not cool."

"No, actually it is." Rodney continued his embarrassing Carson story and followed it up with a bunch of embarrassing Jeannie stories because what are brothers for?


End file.
